Our drinking club has a reading problem

Drunk Review: Nyxia by Scott Reintgen

We picked up an ARC of Nyxia at BookCon and we’d like to thank Crown Books for Young Readers for the opportunity to review.

What I drank prior:

So I had a pretty shit day and then I hurt myself at the gym so I am drinking about it. Three beers a shot of tequila and a heavily poured margarita with little to no food.

Spoiler-free Overview:

so basically, this kid Emmit was chosen to go up into space and to another planet to help this mega company mine some new cool expensive substance called Nyxia. There are 10 kids on the spaceship and only 8 get to go. If they do, they’ll get literally all the money for the rest of their lives. It’s a competition (check) with a substance that changes shape with your thoughts (check) and it’s brutal (double check). It’s all a little sketchy but Emmit wants that money for his family. So he dives right in. The sketch grows and things happen and the competition continues.

Spoiler-free Thoughts:

I could not fucking put this. Iok down. It was go go go right from the start.

Characters:

Emmit was a great narrating voice. He was observant but not unusually so. Like, he didn’t go into details that a normal person wouldn’t. I also really loved his competitors. Like I. Any group o’ teens, they bond but they also have people they just inherently don’t like from the beginning, often for no reason. The supporting cast were well developed for the most part. My fave thing though was that they’re not all from America. Obvi it’s a space trip… so they could pick from anywhere on the planet, and they did. They were able to get by with translators, so that was a nifty detail. Very diverse cast.

Plot:

Like I said, this book was un-putdownable. The competition was fierce but the downtime was so relevant to the story. Also, about half way through the book, obvi, the game changes… throwing a wrench in plans and expectations Emmit had. Just fucking great.

Writing Style:

Not super beautiful or fluffy, but I like it when my Sci-Fi authors are straight forward and to the point. Helps me to understand. Let’s just say I didn’t notice anything I hated about the writing style. It was structured well with the chapters being days on board and I knew what was going on.

World Building:

I had no problem taking in this world. The first chapter is a bit info-dumpy but that’s because they’re in a briefing and it’s supposed to be. I loved discoverin Nyxia with Emmit.

What to pair it with: Tequila shots. You don’t know you’re drunk until you stand up and it hits you in the fucking face.

This review is everything! and yas! I like my Science Fiction without the pretense of “it must be sprawling and vast and super hard to get into”. Ummm September reads I’m looking forward to… Language of Thorns, Enchantment of Ravens, and Invictus are really high on my list. ❤